The present invention relates to the field of solid phase chemistry. More specifically, in one embodiment the invention provides a method, device, and compositions for solid phase and combinatorial synthesis of organic compounds and, most particularly, therapeutically important classes of compounds such as benzodiazepines, prostaglandins, and B-turn mimetics.
Obtaining a better understanding of the important factors in molecular recognition in conjunction with developing potent new therapeutic agents is a major focus of scientific research. Chemical and biological methods have recently been developed for the generation of large combinatorial libraries of peptides and oligonucleotides that are then screened against a specific receptor or enzyme in order to determine the key molecular recognition elements of the biopolymer for that receptor or enzyme. Unfortunately, peptides and oligonucleotides tend to have limited oral activities and rapid clearing times. Therefore, such materials tend to have limited utility as bioavailable therapeutic agents.
Virtually any bioavailable organic compound can be accessed by chemical synthesis; however, such organic compounds are still synthesized and evaluated one at a time in many cases, thus dramatically limiting the number of derivatives which can be studied.
This limitation could be overcome by developing the methodology for the combinatorial synthesis of large numbers of derivatives of therapeutically important classes of bioavailable organic compounds. Screening these compounds against key receptors or enzymes would then greatly accelerate the acquisition of useful structure versus recognition data and would revolutionize the search for potent new therapeutic agents.
From the above it is seen that improved methods, compositions, and devices for synthesis of therapeutically useful compounds are desired.